and you have news, tonight, on what the united states is going to do in malmali. they told us at the beginning of the week, we're going to be involved, we don't know how. you now have some answers. >> last night, this was just under consideration. today we have learned through sources that the u.s. has agreed to help the french in their assault on al qaeda in mali. basically the u.s. is going to be providing airlift. and i'm told through defense officials the u.s. could be helping to bring an entire french mechanized infantry battalion into mali. that would involve maybe 30 trips of big cargo flights, bringing weapons, troops, and heavy vehicles into the fight in mali. we're told at this point, it looks like the airport there is not equipped to handle such a big airlift. there's a lot of other planes and flights tying up the runway, so to speak. so it may be that these flights land in neighboring countries. but regardless of whether that airport clears up and where they land, these flights will have u.s. military security forces, but they're only there to protect